Help me

[John Tierney]

Hi everyone, I know I have been MIA for quite sometime. In my defense I am in an accelerated pharmacy school program and I have very little free time. In any case, this is not an excuse.
On to the title. I need some help, I have been playing guitar in clips here and there, but no scheduled practice or goals, just me messing with my amp mostly. I don’t want to lose what I built so far (I improved a lot in my theory thanks to this site and met so many wonderful people here too). Due to the nature of the program I mentioned earlier, it is intense and I can maybe put like 15 minutes in (THIS VARRIES). And to make matters worse, the passion is slowly dying.
I honestly don’t know who else to turn to other than the people who made me feel welcome and others welcome regardless or skill or personality.
Help me re-ignite the passion and any advice.
John Tierney

 

[Ed Seith]

My daughter just took the PCAT two days ago, so I get how you’re feeling. HANG IN THERE!
The important thing is maintaining the motivation to play SOMETHING every day, even just to stay in “maintenance mode.” You CAN do some exercises if that’s what you feel like doing on a given day, or you can also just resign yourself to playing through a couple of fun songs you know. The important thing for you right now is to stay in it, so literally WHATEVER YOU DO on a given day is better than not doing anything, right?
Hell, you can probably drag an axe into the shitter with you in the morning and pinch out a few “riffs,” if that’s all you’ve got time for.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

JOOOHHHNNNN!!! OMFG I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m so sorry I can’t give a detailed response right now as I’m getting ready for a meeting but my alert went off that you posted and I HAD to say something!! I’ll write more later. I’ll answer your concern as best as I can

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Something is bound to replace your passion. Fo you know what it is yet? Usually you are wanting to make time for something else in this case. Is it worth changing for? I quit guitar when I started playing world of warcraft. And although I cant regret the decision it wasnt the right one as a musician. Played a bit but mainly played wow for 5 years. Thank god i outgrew the game. I had to replace the free time. So I started learning the songs I wrote on guitar pro. Now I know them all and have even written new ones.
Just know the passion WILL eventually come back. Dont sell your shit dude. Lol

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Now that I have some appropriate time I want to give you a real answer. I was just so excited to see you back on the school. If you are going through anything busy in your life, you can lose your passion for anything including life itself. I want you to know that it is not uncommon. When my friend was going through her massage therapy school and because she is blind, I wanted to help her get to school and help her with her homework. It was almost two years that I didn’t really get to focus on guitar that much because everything in life got overwhelming. But then I realized it was all about time management. Things that we don’t really want to do drain us dry to where we no longer have the desire or The Willpower or the energy to do the things we love to do. And in the end it hurts us even more so and we don’t realize it. What I have learned that works best for me, is to make myself put the time in or I am not happy. You can always have guitar as a hobby or as a passion. If it is a hobby then you need to understand what you want to do. With someone who just does it as a hobby they don’t really care if they get better or not. They also don’t really care if they lose the passion or not. It’s very indifferent for them. However because you are expressing concern with your current state with it that shows me that it’s actually a passion and not just a hobby. This is something that you do that makes you happy. And you owe it to yourself that regardless of all the other obligations that life throws at you, you owe it to yourself to focus on something that makes you happy. Your sanity and your livelihood depends on it. I would honestly just dedicate 20 minutes a day. Believe it or not John, 20 minutes a day can make wonders happen. Practicing 20 minutes a day 7 days a week is far more appropriate and productive than practicing 4 hours a day three times a week. I take it like a diet. Every single thing you do can be based off of working towards your goal. For example, are you going to cook at home or you going to eat at McDonald’s again? Are you going to mindlessly browse the internet for 20 minutes or are you going to jump on the school and do one lesson? And the same thing goes for working out. It doesn’t do you any good to workout 2 times a week at the gym for 3 hours. It’s always better in the long run to put minimal time in but every single day. If it offers you any type of encouragement, some of the times I feel I improved the most is when I only practice for 3 hours at a time and sometimes even less because by then my brain is fried and I need a break and a refresher. All I know is that you have improved so much from when I last saw your videos. Perhaps it’s time for you to find that next step to challenge yourself. Over the last year, I went from being scared to put up a video of me playing on here that showed my face because of my body insecurities, to full-on on playing on stage with a live band for the first time in front of people that was not at a party. And I put the whole video up. I’m also in the studio finally recording our album. I was losing my mind being stuck in my bedroom all day with no profits to show for it and all my hard work. I think it might be good of you to maybe try to write a simple song and get into a small-scale studio or even just recorded something fun on your phone. Maybe go to a live Jam even. Sit in with a cover band. Do anything and everything you can to take it to the next step. Sometimes we feel we lose our passion when it gets mundane and repetitive and predictable.

 

[Firsty Lasty]

Regarding passion, allow me to present “Firsty Lasty’s Law of Motivation”: The opposite of depression/inaction is ambition. Ambition comes from good health and from imagination. Your two choices every day are lie in bed until you die or pursue an ambition that you can effectively imagine. This is why so many people find it “easier” to play a shitty computer game that’s not even very fun for ten hours than to seriously focus and practice guitar for ten minutes; it’s because they can imagine making progress with their little avatar on screen more powerfully than they can imagine becoming an awesome musician irl.
So, how do you stay passionate about music? Stay in good health and apply your imagination to the hobby, the more vividly the better. For example, imagine doing the things you would want to do if you were awesome at guitar. If you’re working on a cool lick, work on it as if you seriously believe you’ll be busting it out in an awesome jam session with one of your favorite guitarists. Imagine if Syn was going to knock on your door next weekend; if you really believed this was going to happen, wouldn’t you treasure every single minute of practice between now and then? Or if that’s too much then imagine more mundane opportunities and accountabilities. I’m sure you can come up with something.
I hope this helps.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Firstly I played those games for hours on end. They are strategy games. If you like those types of games youd understand. Definitely a different kind of learning and applying yourself but I cant say it was a bad call I learn a ton of leadership skills playing wow. So i honestly cant agree with your post there.

 

[John Tierney]

Thanks guys
It feels good to be back, but you all stayed in my mind. I have an idea to improve (this also involves Firsty Lasty and Calvin’s comments, also a challenge (I know Jak LOOOOVVEES her challenges)).
I am also a HUGE gamer (I will admit this does distract me alot) the reason why I shifted here is because it does give me comfort and its comfortable territory so I agree with Calvin on that end. However, from Firsty’s point of view I do need some ambition to essentially be a driving force to progress so I agree with her on that.
So the my challenge is this, in going with Ed and Jak’s advice on just doing little bits. Whenever I play a game, when my character dies, I owe you all one scale (honestly this happens more than you think).
The parameters are as follows:
– The scale MUST be PERFECT, tempo = can be as slow or as fast as you like. Both up and down and each consecutive death depending as how well I feel the scale, add another go (I do it twice and so on).
– Each week devote to pentatonic minor then flip to major etc. just make sure you do a different pattern
– When I feel I grasp the idea, start throwing in some techniques.
– Exception when to do this is when tests are upon us (I’m mostly at school studying anyway).
Let me know your thoughts, and thank you everyone it means alot to me.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

You don’t owe us a scale you owe yourself a scale. You don’t owe us anything, my friend.You owe everything to yourself and only yourself. There’s something that seems ‘forced’ about your thoughts. It’s almost like you’re punishing yourself when you say “When my character dies I OWE YOU GUYS a scale”. Playing guitar isn’t a punishment or a debt/duty owed for anything. Let’s all admit that playing a game is easier than guitar. I’m a victim of being addicted to that damn Gardenscapes game. They’re fun, relaxing, enjoyable with instant gratification.
But I feel you are getting down because you’re spending more time on your game than guitar and it’s showing. I’m sorry but you can’t be a Master of All Trades. That’s why the phrase exists “Jack of All Trades, Master of None.” Yes Syn can play several instruments, BUT… he’s a MASTER at one of them. You can be multi-talented if you dedicate your time right. But I guarantee you Syn didn’t become an amazing pianist/guitarist by playing video games all day. If passion lies in both gaming and guitar, you need to give equal attention to each; no questions.

 

[Ed Seith]

Yeah, if you want to devote your time to gaming, be a vocalist, like Shads.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I’d be so much further ahead if I didnt play wow for 5 years but like I said I became a leader there and more social. I wasnt a big talker so it helped me a lot. But imagine where I’d be if I didnt stop playing for 5 years lol

 

[John Tierney]

Thanks guys, I read the challenge and honestly it sounds silly tbh. I’m just slowing going back, but @jak, your right it’s the Jack of all trades not master. I did find some things to try tho, any thank you all for your help it means a lot to me .

 

[Firsty Lasty]

I thought a bit about how to make a combination video game death/scale practice system work. Here’s my untested idea for learning scale patterns:
-Take a bunch of index cards and write the name/description of all of the scale shapes you want to learn
(probably do them all from the same key, like maybe everything is in G Major or G harmonic minor or G melodic minor)
-Mix them up. Draw one randomly at each character death and see if you remember it correctly. If not, learn/relearn it.
-The Game is Hotline Miami
Muahaha I’m evil.

 

[Ethan Keeling]

I never really have given advice on guitar stuff as I’m a beginner and quiet shy when it comes to this. But honestly when i feel discouraged i learn something I love, even if it’s too hard. I learnt the “So Far Away” solo section the other day as I just began to get bored of theory, and I fell in love again. But then i tried the “Shepard of Fire” solo, and despite this being really difficult, I really enjoyed trying to learn something i never thought I could. This kinda stuff really brings my love for guitar back to life, even if its 15 mins a night on youtube learning parts of a song. Hope this helps, as I say I don’t often do this stuff, but wanna start helping others as i’m a intermediate player, might have some different viewpoints and strategies I guess!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

That’s a great point, Ethan! And just because you’re a beginner doesn’t mean you can’t teach someone, something I’ve learned a lot from the beginners on here!

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

Yooo. whats up John!!!
This time constraint things happen to a lot of people, you are not alone. Its important that you play regularly, even if 5 minutes. Just stick with it. Daily 5-10 minutes. That is all you need in a time like this. Don’t worry about passion. Sometimes you have to just blindly follow a habit just for the sake of it. Passion for playing guitar is in you and it will reignite itself in due time.Do not consciously think about it and stress yourself. These are natural things. For inspiration I watch a particular video of Syn and Zacky which I will share here. Hope this helps. Good luck.